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University Theme Pathways to a Healthy Life

University Theme Pathways to a Healthy Life. Theme Workshop - 10 September 2012. Pathways to a Healthy Life is one of the four University of Aberdeen’s Interdisciplinary Themes, aiming to use its broad disciplinary base to address major global challenges.

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University Theme Pathways to a Healthy Life

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  1. University Theme Pathways to a Healthy Life Theme Workshop - 10 September 2012

  2. Pathways to a Healthy Lifeis one of the four University of Aberdeen’s Interdisciplinary Themes, aiming to use its broad disciplinary base to address major global challenges. Through creation of strategic collaborations between Schools and Colleges, and exploiting our unique and established strengths in basic, natural and nutritional sciences, translational medicine, health economics, education and psychology, we will seek to enhance our contribution to all aspects of healthy aging. “… to improve not only life expectancy but also life expectancy free of disease.”

  3. “… to make a difference to both the world of knowledge and the knowledge of the world.” The Theme aims to significantly strengthen our national and international position to address global challenges relating to healthy aging, and be successful in obtaining external investments and sponsorships through strategic cross-College and cross-School collaborations. We are currently seeking to establish strategic cross-disciplinary collaborations in three main research areas:

  4. What are the mechanisms of healthy aging and resilience? • What is good health? • How should it be measured? • What determines resilience to aging? • Few can avoid stress and illness – but some people show high resilience in the face of the challenges of everyday life. What predicts ability to cope with mental and physical challenges? Targeting those with lowest resilience may be the best use of limited healthcare resources.

  5. How can we establish sustained lifestyle changes? Sound nutritional practices and enhanced aerobic exercise regimes have been shown to reduce the risk of non-communicable diseases and increase life expectancy. But how can we move people to sustain healthy lifestyle changes? It is not enough to provide information or resources, and hope that this will change behaviour and lifestyle: effective interventions must be based on a sophisticated understanding of what motivates change for an individual and what facilitates the translation of that motivation into actual behaviour.

  6. How do health inequalities and resilience influence outcomes of well-being and socio-economic performance? There are marked differences in life expectancy, especially healthy life expectancy, in different parts of the country. Deprivation plays a large part in this, but there are also other important modifiers. Understanding more about the nature of these influences is imperative to develop the best interventions to improve the health and well-being of the population.

  7. The main aim of this Workshop is to create new projects by crossing ‘traditional’ boundaries between academic disciplines, and thinking across them 9:15 – 9:30: Introduction 9:30 – 11:00: Mechanisms of healthy aging - proposal presentations 11:00 - 11:30: Coffee Break 11:30 - 12:00: Sustained lifestyle changes – proposal presentations 12:00 - 13:00: Health inequalities - proposal presentations 13:00 - 14:00: Lunch and networking 14:00 - 16:00: Breakout sessions to further explore strategic cross-disciplinary collaborations

  8. What happens next? • Proposal (2-page) submission before the 28th September 2012 • Management Board meeting on 10th October 2012 - decision on top 5 or 6 proposals • Advertisements out on 11th October 2012 • Responses in by 31st October 2012 • Interviews and decisions on 3 successful candidates before Christmas • Successful candidates to choose proposal with supervisor’s endorsement • There will be 3 more Theme studentships available next year!

  9. What makes a successful proposal? • 1. Scientific quality and suitability of the project: • Is the proposed project of high quality and aligned to the Theme’s remit? Does it answer a research question that addresses major global challenges relating to healthy ageing? • Is the project crossing ‘traditional’ boundaries between academic disciplines, and truly cross-disciplinary? • Is the proposed work feasible in the time frame of 3.5 years?

  10. What makes a successful proposal? • 2. Supervision • Is the proposed supervisory team a robust and cross-disciplinary partnership (i.e. representing at least two different Schools or Colleges) and the best possible team to address the research question? Could the project be done without the collaboration? • Do the project partners have a suitable track record? • How is the cross-disciplinary team work going to benefit the student and their research training and research opportunities?

  11. What makes a successful proposal? • 3. Wider importance of the project • Who will benefit from this research, and how? • Is this proposal relevant for future strategic priority areas of UK and EU funding opportunities, or for strategic engagement with industry? Could it strengthen our position to attract further external income to the University? • 4. Match-funding • Is the project able to provide co-funding or in kind contributions through external partnerships, for example from industry or RCUK sources?

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